Cambridge-based Foundation Medicine Inc. is seeking up to 1 million square feet in Boston or Cambridge for a life science campus.
The cancer researcher, which was acquired by Swiss pharma giant Roche last year, appears to be narrowing its search to a build-to-suit office and lab site in Boston’s Seaport District owned by WS Development of Chestnut Hill, according to real estate industry sources. The available parcels are next to Amazon’s planned 430,000-square-foot offices, which are expected to break ground this spring.
If finalized, the deal would be the biggest by a life science company in the booming Seaport since Vertex Pharmaceuticals in 2011 agreed to move from Cambridge to a 1.1-million-square-foot Fan Pier headquarters.
At least two other high-profile developments in Boston and Cambridge could accommodate Foundation Medicine’s big space requirement.
The Abbey Group of Boston said it will break ground this year on its 1.6-million-square-foot Exchange South End project at the former Boston Flower Exchange property on Albany Street.
And DivcoWest has 1 million square feet of office and lab space available at its 45-acre Cambridge Crossing site, even after leasing 900,000 square feet to Sanofi Genzyme in December.
“[Foundation Medicine] might be able to do a little bit more [square footage] in the Seaport than they could at Cambridge Crossing, and that continues to be the competitive advantage in the Seaport: the ability to build scale,” a real estate industry source said.
Amazon last year leased 444,000 square feet on WS’s parcel L-4, one of four parcels near the corner of Congress Street and Boston Wharf Road previously used as surface parking. The online commerce giant has an option on parcel L5, which is approved for another 707,000 square feet of office and retail space.
Two other development parcels in the L block are approved for 755,000 square feet.
Foundation Medicine currently occupies 123,200 square feet at 150 Second St. in Cambridge with a lease expiring in 2024 and another 38,000 square feet at 10 Canal Park, with a 2020 lease expiration. The company is seeking an “engaging and cohesive” workplace environment, a spokeswoman said last month.
Roche Pharmaceuticals paid $1 billion for a 56 percent stake in Foundation Medicine in 2015 and acquired the remaining stake last year for $2.4 billion.
Massachusetts now has 29 million square feet of lab space, an increase of 12 million in the past decade, according to the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.
Most of the 5.1 million square feet of commercial development in the Seaport in the past decade has accommodated traditional office tenants. But the neighborhood still can accommodate another 8 million square feet of office and lab space, according to research by Colliers International in Boston.
WS Development acquired the remaining portions of the master-planned Seaport Square project in 2015 from Boston Global Investors for $359 million. The project now has approvals for 7.7 million square feet of development.
